Interior Renovations · Aurora, York Region
Home renovation in Aurora: kitchens, bathrooms, basements and open main floors, in postwar houses west of Yonge and newer homes in the Bayview subdivisions. We measure the house as it stands, design the structure and services behind the finishes, and file the permit set with the Town of Aurora Building Division through CityView.
What’s included
Most interior work we build starts with a wall someone wants gone. The rest follows from that: the beam, the systems behind the drywall, the finishes, and the inspections in between. In Aurora the package goes to the Town of Aurora Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
The wet rooms
New layouts, plumbing moved to suit them, and the ventilation and electrical brought up to code while the walls are open.
Rooms combined
Combining rooms, widening openings and moving a stair so the main floor works as one space.
Engineered in-house
The beam, its posts and the footing under them designed and stamped by our P.Eng, with shoring in place before a stud is cut.
Behind the drywall
Systems updated while the walls are open: supply and drains rerouted, ducts resized, circuits added.
The package
Find your situation below. If it’s there, this is the service, and the card underneath is everything you get from our one office.
06 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps, one contract. The office that draws the beam is the one that installs it.
We look at the house, listen to what you want changed, and tell you which walls carry load and what the permit will cover.
Layout, structural and mechanical drawings come from one office, then go to the city. We answer examiner comments at no extra charge.
Our crew does the demolition, structure, rough-ins and finishes. When something unexpected turns up behind a wall, the engineer decides on site.
Framing, plumbing, electrical and final inspections are booked as each stage is ready. You get the closed permit with the keys.
Case files
Open any file for the scope, the disciplines involved, what we delivered and what the owner came away with.
A compact two-storey suite in a Toronto backyard. Architectural and structural drawings, zoning review and a framing package that makes every square foot count.
Delivered
New living space on a lot the owners already had.
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Structural walls came out and rooms were added to open the plan. Beam and column design, permit drawings and renovation coordination through to final inspection.
Delivered
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
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A code-compliant second unit with its own entrance, fire separations between the units, HVAC design and the full permit package.
Delivered
A legal second unit that brings in rent and adds property value.
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A new build taken from the client’s sketch to occupancy, with the architectural, structural and mechanical design done by one team.
Delivered
Built to the client’s own plan, with one team answering for every discipline.
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A two-storey garden suite laid out to get the most usable space from the footprint, designed and permitted as a rentable unit.
Delivered
Rental income and a higher property value.
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A dental office converted into a supermarket. Interior renovation, a new plumbing system and fire separations upgraded to the Ontario Fire Code.
Delivered
A dental office reopened as a supermarket, compliant with the Ontario Fire Code.
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A custom covered porch that turns the front of the house into usable outdoor space. Addition design and structural drawings for the permit.
Delivered
More usable outdoor space and added home value.
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Site grading to manage drainage and prepare the land for a new driveway, drawn as a grading plan for the site alteration permit.
Delivered
Drainage handled and the land ready for a new driveway.
Start a project like thisPhoto plates
Additions, basements, kitchens, new builds and commercial fit-outs. Drag a row to scrub through it, or open any photo full size.Tap any photo to see it full size.
21 platesResidential, commercial & new build
The drawing set
Framing schedules, wall assemblies, dimensions and a city review stamp, as issued. Client title blocks are trimmed off to protect the people we drew them for.
Drawing set
Sheets in this set
Sheet title
Existing basement plan
The existing house recorded before any design: beams, joists and bearing walls.
Drawing no.
2 of 5
Service area
From the office we cover the whole GTA, north to Barrie and Orillia, east to Peterborough and Cobourg, west to Kitchener and Brantford, and down through Niagara.
46 across 8 regions
York Region
Toronto & Peel
Halton
Durham
Simcoe & Dufferin
Waterloo, Wellington & Brant
Hamilton, Niagara & Haldimand
Kawarthas & Northumberland
Past the 90-minute line
We've also completed projects in London and Strathroy. Farther out than that? Call (416) 990-9179 and ask.
Permits filed with municipalities including
Before you call
Anything we haven’t answered here, we’ll answer on a call. The first consultation is free.
(416) 990-9179Yes, once walls or plumbing move. Aurora sits inside York Region, but the Town of Aurora Building Division issues the building permit and inspects the work, so that is where we file it.
Not for work inside the existing walls. Our Aurora page names the conservation authority that covers your lot.
Yes. We take on interior renovations across Aurora, including Aurora Heights and Regency Acres, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.
Three things to start: property address; photos of the rooms you want to change; and any existing drawings or a previous permit. Send those and we tell you what the Town of Aurora Building Division will ask for before we quote.
Less than it does for an addition, though it applies whether or not the work needs a permit. A kitchen or bathroom rebuilt inside the existing walls seldom raises a zoning question. A walkout, a new side entrance or a basement laid out as a separate unit can, and a unit also brings in Registration By-law 6660-24, so for those we read your lot’s zone in 6000-17 before anything is drawn.
The basement becomes an Integrated Unit under Registration By-law 6660-24, which means a building permit for the unit and registration with the Town. Its fire separation, exit and second kitchen go on the drawings the Town of Aurora Building Division reviews. If a garden suite might follow one day, we plan the basement with that in view, because a lot with a detached unit can keep only one Integrated Unit.
It can, mostly for work that shows from outside. Northeast Old Aurora is the only district the Town has designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act, so before a new window or a wider door is drawn for a house there, we ask the Town what the designation requires. Work that stays indoors still needs its building permit from the Town of Aurora Building Division, applied for through CityView.
Yes, once the work reaches the yard. A drain line for a new basement bathroom, a deeper window well or a bin parked over the roots can injure a tree, and Bylaw 5850-16 regulates injury as well as removal. A heritage tree, or any tree on a lot in the Northeast Old Aurora district, needs a permit before that happens, so on those lots we route the trench and place the bin with the trees marked.
Yes, at each stage your permit lists. Requests go through CityView, and an inspector from the Town of Aurora Building Division looks at the new framing, plumbing and ductwork while they are still open, so the drywall waits for that visit. When our crew is building the renovation, we book each inspection as the work reaches it.
Yes, and that first visit is free. In a postwar house west of Yonge we look for the walls that hold up the floors above and check the age of the wiring and drains, and in a newer house in the Bayview secondary plan areas we see how the floors are framed before promising an open plan. If you want a rental unit as well, we check the house against By-law 6660-24 and whether the address falls inside the Northeast Old Aurora district.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the interior renovations questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationIt takes out or widens the walls between rooms, most often between the kitchen, dining and living areas, to make one open main floor. A wall that carries the floor above can still come out once a beam is sized to carry its load. Fine Engineering designs the structure and builds the opening.
The price follows what the basement has to become. Open space finished for the house is mostly framing, insulation, drywall and floors. A bathroom with no rough-in under the slab adds plumbing, and moving a post adds structure. A second unit costs more again, with the fire separation, exit and 1.95 m ceiling a suite needs. Fine Engineering prices it from what the first site visit finds.
Start by settling what the space is for, because that decides the permit. Living space for the household usually needs none unless the plan changes the structure, the plumbing or the heating. Any of those, or a second unit, goes on a building permit first. The layout then works around the posts and drains already there. Fine Engineering draws that layout and files the permit.
Usually a whole floor, or the whole house, taken back to the framing and rebuilt: a new layout, structural changes where walls move, plumbing and ducts rerouted and new wiring, then insulation, drywall and finishes. Fine Engineering starts from the house measured as it stands, so the new plan fits the framing already in place.
Once a complete application is in, Ontario’s Building Code gives the municipality 10 business days to issue a house permit or refuse it with reasons. Larger and more complex buildings get a longer period. The count only starts when nothing is missing, so an absent sheet or an unresolved zoning issue holds it back. Fine Engineering checks zoning and code before anything is submitted.
The application form, the drawings the Building Code calls for, and every other approval the project depends on. Zoning counts as applicable law, so a needed minor variance has to be granted before the permit can be issued, and a lot in a conservation authority’s regulated area may need that authority’s permit first. Fine Engineering assembles the whole package, with the designer’s registration details on the drawings.
Good to know
In Aurora the reviewer is the Town of Aurora Building Division. Every Aurora lot sets its own terms: the framing and drains of the house on it decide how far a renovation can go.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the interior renovations package to the Town of Aurora Building Division’s own checklist.
Aurora mixes established postwar neighbourhoods west of Yonge seeing infill rebuilds, with newer subdivisions in the Bayview secondary plan areas to the east, so two kitchens a few streets apart can be different jobs. In the older houses we measure what is there and open the framing where it is hidden. In the newer houses, the original permit drawings, if you have them, save part of that step.
Infill rebuilds are replacing some of the postwar houses west of Yonge, so owners there often weigh a deep renovation against a new house. A renovation inside the existing walls works with the house as it was built and approved.
A new house, or an addition, is drawn to Zoning By-law 6000-17, adopted in 2017 as Aurora’s first full zoning review since 1979, and can come out smaller or sit differently on the lot. We measure the house and read its zone before you choose.
The set we upload to the Town’s CityView Portal shows each floor as it is and as it will be, the framing above any wall that moves, and the plumbing and duct changes behind the new rooms. The Town of Aurora Building Division reviews it there, and the application’s status shows in the same place from the day it is filed. Questions from the examiner come back through the portal too, and we answer them and upload the revised sheets.
Contact us
Tell us what you want changed and we’ll tell you what it involves, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179